Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which Floor Stander for my room

Hello.

My listening room is 19' x 15' with a 12' cathedral ceiling. There is a 8' wide opening to the dining room and kitchen on one side and a 5' wide opening to a small foyer and hallway on the other side. This will be for stereo only listening. My receiver is a Denon DRA-395 stereo receiver rated at 80 watts x 2 into 8 ohms, 20Hz - 20kHz, <.08% THD, 4 ohms stable.

What would you suggest? Please don't let price be an object of consideration because any of the Axiom floor standers pass the wife approved budget test. ;-)

Thanks,
Darren

If you prefer detailed, forward sounding speakers...M60ti or M80ti. (Though the M80's might want some more power than your DRA-395 has)

If you prefer a little bit more laid back, mellow sound...M50ti or M40ti.

i agree with spiff.. 60's or 80's.. in addition, the 80's are 4ohm speakers, so while being efficient, i think you are lacking the wattage to really make em shine. i reckon you could get the 60's, and fill that room with PLENTY of sound!!

bigjohn

You would be ok if you were to deceide on the M80s too.The Denon is 80 watts @ 8ohm but into 4ohm it should put out more than 100 watts per channel.That would be more than enough to run the 80s pretty darn good.

would that cause his reciever to clip out??? I have thought of getting the 80's but I fear that I would need another receiver to properly drive them.

The Denon is stable under a 4 ohm load.Over driving the receiver is the only way to make it clip,ie running out of useable power.It should put out at around 120 watts @4ohm.That should be enough to run the 80s at quite loud levels.

thank you for clearing that up.

My impression was that as stated above, my 80 watts per channel amp in the receiver at 8 ohms would turn into an approx. 120 watts per channel amp when mated with 4 ohm speakers. Is this not enough? If not, what is enough?

Throwing out the question of the receiver, (I will have the speakers far longer than the receiver) would my large space of over 5000 cubic feet need the M80 or would that be overkill. I currently have definitive tech BP6B that have two 5 1/2" midrange/bass drivers and two 1" tweeters and it is not cutting it in this space.

One thing that I never really see mentioned is that the M80s are also more efficient, outputting a higher level per watt than the 60s.

I would say that as long as the Denon is fine with 4 Ohm loads, the fact that it might be rated for a few less watts/channel makes the M80 even more attractive!

If price is not a big consideration; and you have amplification to drive 4 Ohms; and you have a larger room, I can't see the M80 as overkill at all. I think it would be the preferred model!

That's an important point. M80s can HANDLE more power than M60s but they do not REQUIRE more power than the 60s, ie they will play just as loud (in fact a bit louder) than M60s with everything else the same. The only reasons we talk about equipment with the M80s is (a) many amps don't perform well at high levels into a 4 ohm load, and (b) if you have crappy electronics you might be better off spending the price difference between 60s and 80s on improving some other part of your system.

As long as your receiver is good with 4 ohms (folks, do we know the Denon stereo products are also OK with 4 ohms or could it just be the AV receivers ?) then you're good to go with the M80s.

How far will you be sitting from the speakers normally, and do you have room to keep the backs of the speakers 1-2 feet from the back wall ? As long as you and the speakers will NOT be packed into one corner of the large room then M80s are definitely the way to go.